A Straightforward Tale

"Your aunt's pulling your leg!" laughed Uzma, still in her silly mood. "She probably didn't like what she saw of the house and decided to pretend there was a jinn there!"

"Aunt isn't like that!"

"Yeah, well, there's no such thing as jinns, anyway."

"Yes, there is!"

"No there isn't!"

"They're mentioned in the Qu'ran, you know, so there must be!"

"Yeah, well my father told me that jinn could be a word used for a very powerful person in society, not what you think of as a jinn!"

"Where'd your father hear that?"

"He's read a translation of the Qu'ran and it was written as part of the explanation!"

"That's just one way of looking at it, though, isn't it?," Fari put in her two bits just for the sake of argument.

"Yeah, but I figure it's probably the best. Islam does do away with superstition -- at-least, it's supposed to!"

"Yeah, but everything we can't understand isn't superstition. Jinns do exist. I mean, proper jinns, not your silly explanation," argued Shaiza.

"Rubbish!"

"It is not rubbish ...!"

At this point, the bell rang and the three had to leave off their arguing and go to class. They gathered up their lunchboxes and plastic wrappers and stuff and were just about to set off when their arguing caught up with them: all three fell into a faint, eyes rolled back into their heads and limbs jerking. The alarm was raised by other girls returning to class and the three were quickly taken to hospital, where they were met by their worried parents. The doctors did a million tests on them but couldn't find out what was wrong. Specialists were brought in, even from abroad but no-one could discover anything wrong with the girls. They are still there, lying in a coma-like faint, with limbs jerking from time to time. It has been almost a year now and Shaiza's parents are making noises about taking her to America to be treated. "The doctors here," they say, condemningly. "We're sure she'll be treated better there,"

Fari and Uzma's parents disagree. Fari's Uncle is a brilliant doctor in the US and he told her parents that the doctors had taken the best possible care of their daughter and Uzma's parents believe him too. So Uzma and Fari will stay here.

I visit my three best friends every day. Usually, I bring them flowers. I did tell their parents and I even spoke to Shaiza's aunt, but nobody will believe me. I told them that I can hear the girls talking to me, that they tell me they are with the Jinn, in a place where they can't see or smell or hear anything. They try and tell me what the place is like, but our language doesn't have any words for it. They try and explain their daily doings, but I can't understand what it is they do: they don't eat, they don't play, they don't go to school but they do somehow feed themselves and have fun and learn. I don't know, the place is too different, they are too different. They say they're not too unhappy, that it is interesting but that they miss home and wish they could come back. Only, they don't know how and the Jinn aren't willing to let them.

I keep trying to get their parents to listen to me but everyone looks at me strangely and smiles. Poor thing, I hear the whispers, she just can't accept that her friends are gone. I just don't know what to do!

The worst thing is, Shaiza, she lied. That story about her Aunt -- none of it was true.